Thousands flee West Bank refugee camp after massive Israeli military raid kills 10
In Tel Aviv, Hamas claims responsibility for deliberate vehicle attack by Palestinian driver
Thousands of people were evacuated from the Jenin refugee camp as one of Israel's biggest West Bank military operations in years continued for a second day on Tuesday. A car-ramming in Tel Aviv underlined the risk of violence spreading.
Launched early on Monday, the operation involving hundreds of commandos backed by drones prompted the internationally backed Palestinian administration to suspend contacts with Israel and stirred U.S. and UN concern for humanitarian conditions.
"We are alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations that are taking place in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, and airstrikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp," Vanessa Huguenin, a spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, told a briefing, saying three minors were among those killed. She did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for the victims' ages.
Israel says the operation in Jenin's tenement-like refugee camp, code named "Home and Garden," aims to uproot Iranian-backed Palestinian armed factions behind a recent surge in gun and bomb attacks as well as preliminary efforts to manufacture rockets.
A Palestinian wounded during the clashes died overnight and another body was found in the morning, bringing the death toll to 10, with around 100 wounded, 20 of them critically, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Islamic Jihad faction claimed four of the dead as its fighters. Hamas, another Islamist faction, claimed a fifth. It was not immediately clear if the other five fatalities — males aged 17 to 23 — were combatants or civilians.
'Not a one-time operation': Netanyahu
The Israeli military said it had confirmation of nine Palestinians killed by its forces. All were combatants, it said.
"At this moment we are completing the mission, and I can say that our extensive activity in Jenin is not a one-time operation," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told journalists at a checkpoint near Jenin.
There was no indication of how much longer the operation might last after officials said earlier it could run for one or two days.
Israel has been on alert for Palestinian attacks since the major military operation, and in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, a motorist wounded eight people with his vehicle, an Israeli police spokesperson said.
The 20-year-old Palestinian, from the occupied West Bank, was shot dead by an armed civilian, police said. Israel's Shin Bet security agency said he entered the country without a permit and had no record of security offences.
Hamas claimed the attacker, identified as 23 year-old Abdel-Wahab Khalyleh, as its member and characterized it as an "act of self-defence" after the Jenin operation.
3,000 people evacuated from camp
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had evacuated 500 families, or around 3,000 people, from the camp, where some 14,000 people live in less than half a square kilometre and which has been one of the focal points of a wave of violence that has swept the occupied West Bank for more than a year.
Hundreds of fighters from Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Fatah live in the camp, which has been fortified with a range of obstacles and watching posts to counter regular army raids.
On Monday, Israeli bulldozers plowed through streets in the camp to destroy improvised explosive devices, cutting water and electricity supplies, though Israeli officials said they would work to restore services.
On Tuesday, the military said border police had found an underground shaft used to store explosives in the refugee camp and had dismantled two observation posts.
The fighting further underlined once more the lack of any sign of a political solution to the decades-long conflict and international reaction to the operation was mixed. The United States said it respected Israel's right to defend itself but said it was imperative to avoid civilian casualties.
Mohammed Moustafa Orfy, Egypt's permanent representative to the Arab League, said the operation would hinder efforts to bring reconciliation after months of escalating violence.
"What is happening in Jenin, from brutal killing using the Israeli war machine, is aimed at shrinking to a very large extent the chances of reviving the peace process," he said.
Many offices and businesses across the occupied West Bank closed on Tuesday in response to calls for a general strike to protest the operation, which the Palestinian Authority has described as a "war crime."
